Origen the early Christian scholar prepared (c. 230-245 AD) a comparison of
the different versions of the Old Testament in columns side by side. He was
interested in the relation between the Septuagint (LXX)
and Hebrew text.

Origen's motives were both scholarly (to establish the biblical
text) and missionary (to be effective in talking with Jewish scholars),
primarily to avoid quoting parts of the Bible that were not in
the Hebrew text. His work is an early example of Christian text
criticism and still of considerable importance in establishing
the text of difficult passages.

He also presented some other versions for some books only.
Heptapla and Octapla describe parts that
contain seven or eight columns.

This page is part of the Hypertext Bible Commentary - Amos , if you have reached it as a standalone
page, to view it in context, go to www.bible.gen.nz&COPY; Tim Bulkeley, 1996-2005, Tim
Bulkeley. All rights reserved.